Lieutenant Indara Cindus may have been one of the lowest ranked people in the room- aside from the alien of course, who had no rank that she knew of... Though it was possible he had some sort of rank among his people; likely a rather impressive one, given how dangerous he had shown himself to be...

But her rank was merely indicative of her responsibilities and not her capability.

She knew she was a skilled and intelligent officer, arguably the smartest person in the room- again, not considering the alien. He was too much of an unknown. No one had expected... anything... out of the alien, besides it being captured and interrogated.

Now nearly all of their officers were being held at gun point.

Once all of them had lined up against the wall at the direction of the alien, its eyes ran across the group of them and it spoke once more. “Now we're going to play a game. It's really simple: I will point at one of you and ask a question, then that person answers. If you refuse to answer... bad things will happen. If you lie to me... You guessed it! More bad things will happen.”

As the words sunk in, the alien pointed at someone, seemingly at random: Lt. Shale... This honestly could not get worse! Shale was, to put it bluntly, an idiot. Being the Commander's only nephew, Shale's position was due entirely to nepotism. Not trusted to make decisions or even transmit orders, Shale was regulated to a purely secretarial role...

“You! First question: Who is the Commanding Officer here?”

'Fuck!' Cindus cursed internally, her mind racing. Even that idiot could answer that question... And that was the last thing they needed! What would the alien do with their Commander? Question him for state secrets? Or simply kill him?

Motion from further down, past Shale, caught her attention. One of the other officers, Lt. Teine, was moving his hand slowly, inch by inch, towards the back of his hip. It took her less than an instant to understand...

Teine was a combat vet that had seen action against the Tortu. He always carried a knife, hidden behind his back and under his armor. It was obvious he was going to try something and, given how much larger Teine was than the alien...

She liked his odds a lot better than them just standing around like idiots, answering questions.

Knowing she only had moments to deflect before that idiot Shale said something, and wanting to draw attention further away from Teine, Cindus did the first thing that came to mind.

Stepping forward, withering glare locked on the alien, Cindus chose to bluff.

“I am.”

Cindus had to suppress a shiver as the aliens gaze ran across her. It was almost like the man could see through her... or he was undressing her with his eyes. But that was ridiculous, right? He didn't even have scales! Or even a tail! And is face was flat! He was just this weird, soft looking thing that was even smaller than her!

“And you are...?” The alien asked as he smiled at her, his incredibly small teeth being oddly flat. Was his species descended from herbivores?

“Commander Indara Cindus. I'm in charge here.”

“You know, I never imagined I would say this to someone with literal scales and a tail... But you're kinda cute, Indara. Unfortunately...”

'What the hell!? The alien thinks I'm cute?' Shock and confusion ran through Cindus at his statement... Which only doubled when a pistol simply appeared in the aliens off-hand.

Then, without even turning to look, he shot Teine in the leg.

As Teine crumbled to the floor with a pained shout, the alien shook his head sadly at the rest of the stunned group. “Ok people, new rule: One by one, set down any weapons you have and kick them over to me. If I see anyone else go for a weapon, I'll kill two of your friends and maim the person with the weapon. Understand?”

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Cindus could only watch as the alien collected their weapons. While she imagined one or two may have considered not giving them up, she doubted any would actually risk it. When the alien looked to her last, she simply shook her head to indicate that she didn't have a weapon- not one she would admit to,anyway.

Not that she could get to the pistol tucked into her boot easily, anyway. But she didn't want to just give it up.

“Now, where was I?” The alien seemed to think for a moment as he paced in front of the group. Several of the officers flinched when he turned suddenly to point at her again. “Ah, that's right! I was asking about the Commanding Officer... Which isn't you, Indara.”

“You lied to me. And you remember the rule about lying to me, right?”

Gritting her teeth, she nodded sharply, knowing that someone was about to be hurt because of her... But how did he know she was lying? She knew that he hadn't read it in her face... There was a reason she was banned from playing cards with the other officers, after all.

A soft chuckle drew her attention back to the alien.

“That's right. Bad things will happen... But I'm going to hold on to your punishment for now. Let you stew in worry and anticipation... But, if its any consolation, I promise that you will survive it.”

“Well, unless you try to lie to me again. I can't tolerate that twice, you know. Otherwise I will lose the respect of the rest. Or at least it will take away a bit of their fear.”

He sighed, sounding almost sad... and she was surprised that, for a second, he actually looked sad.

“Without their fear... someone else will try something stupid. Then I'll have to kill more people today. And, while that would mostly annoy me... I'm sure you all hope to make it out of this alive, right?”

He glanced around, most of the officers too afraid to meet his gaze- Cindus would have called them cowards, but most of them had never seen actual combat. Hell, the only reason she had was because of the small rebellion last year. And that barely counted...

“So, Lieutenant Indara Cindus... How about we try this again? Who is the Commanding Officer?”

Once again, the alien shocked her. He knew her rank! Did he have detailed intelligence on them before he arrived? Did he learn their rank insignia before coming to their world? Or had he somehow learned them since his arrival? How-

But, without even really needing to think, she already had an idea of how he had managed it. Somehow, in the span of a single night, he had not only destroyed all of their planes... But he had found enough time to question one of their people, and learn at least the names of all the officers...

Either that, or this was an attack that he had long ago planned and prepared for. But, if that was the case, why would he be alone? It didn't make sense for only one man to be sent to attack their base... Unless there were more of them out there! That thought had merit, as how else could he have accomplished so much in one night?

Somehow, the simplicity and straight forward nature of his sabotage escaped her notice at the moment... A fact that she would later be kicking herself over.

A soft sigh distracted her from the almost chaotic analysis, and Commander Stone stepped forward.

“I'm in charge here. Commander Oberon Stone.”

The alien's smirk made Cindus want to punch him in his stupid flat face. He looked so absolutely smug, as if he was just toying with them-

“I know. Congratulations, everyone! While you all earned a couple punishments, I'm sure your superiors will reward you for your loyalty. I mean, assuming they don't slap 'Classified' all over this and kill everyone that knows the truth...”

“But, hey! Maybe they won't kill you and the reward will be enough to offset the punishment you all will receive for letting an alien destroy half your base!”

The alien's dark laughter sent shivers down Cindus' spine, and a few of the other officers even whimpered in fear...

Then, suddenly, his eyes held the coldness of certain death... and only Cindus and the Commander didn't shrink back from the crazy alien.

“All because you had to attack me and my friends. No attempts to communicate; no warnings... You just attacked.”

Cindus felt like she was staring down the barrel of a gun... Which she technically was, but somehow his tone made it worse... Like he had already judged them, and the sentence was death.

“My friends are peaceful. Kind. Innocent.”

“But I'm not.”

“So!”

“Commander Stone, Lieutenant Cindus... You two are going to do exactly what I tell you to do. If you refused, I'll kill every single person on this base- except the two of you, of course. You can't learn if you're dead, after all.”

“If you try to attack me or fight... I'm sure you two get it at this point. Violence, pain, death... Blah, blah, blah.”

“So, what's it going to be? Comply? Or die?”